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24 a-e-mag.com • A&E AUGUST 2018
Most folks try to survey the market to
determine what others are charging for
similar items. Although this is an under-
standable starting point, most of the data
typically ends up coming from places like
Etsy where folks are greatly underpricing
their offerings — and as a consequence,
fade away over time.
For many years, I've been surveying
our broad base of clients for the purpose
of documenting the selling prices of our
products. Not surprisingly, these prices
vary due to differences in selling environ-
ments, artwork, and business strategies. I
have compiled these price ranges for many
of our products and offer the information
as a quick fix pricing spreadsheet. It comes
bundled with a cost worksheet for folks
to understand how the many elements of
operating a business add up to ultimately
determine your bottom line profits. Our
pricing spreadsheet, however, is merely a
start to pricing, so read on!
VALUE PRICING
A better approach to pricing is what I
call value pricing. Using this approach, you
can often charge a higher price for your
products because they are simply worth it.
Most sublimators underprice their products
and often deliver less-than-stellar designs.
Doing so leaves money on the table and
can cheapen the product sold. Great ser-
vice, quality, accuracy, and prompt delivery
are all key components of a great product
that you can charge more for too. My three
elements to value pricing are substrates,
artwork, and sales/marketing strategies.
SUBSTRATES
Adding value to your substrates is an
interesting concept. For instance, you can
increase the value of a 4-by-16-inch piece
of ChromaLuxe metal by giving it a simple
curve or an S curve and turning it into a self-
standing product. This costs almost nothing
but could add $5 to $10 to the selling price.
Road to Sublimation Success:
The Approach to Pricing
David Gross is the president of Condé Sys-
tems, Inc. For more than 25 years he has
developed and built the Mobile, Alabama
based company into the premier source
for printers, substrates, and consumables
serving the graphic art, photography, pre-
press, and desktop publishing industries.
By David Gross
P
ricing is the most asked-about topic in our world of
sublimation decorating, and it should be! Do you have a
strategy for pricing your products? One wrong approach
is plugging numbers into a formula that marks up or keystones a
product's cost to determine its selling price. For many high-value
products like a ChromaLuxe cuff bracelet, this method yields
bizarre underpricing.